Object Details

Title:

Artist/Maker(s):

Culture:

American

Date:

1927

Medium:

Palladium print

Dimensions:

19.7 x 21.6 cm (7 3/4 x 8 1/2 in.)

Signed:

(Verso) signed and dated in pencil, at upper left: "Tina Modotti -- 1927"

Inscriptions:

(Verso) inscribed in pencil, at upper left by Modotti: " (graflex negative)"; in pencil, at upper right, by Edward Weston: "Mexico"; in pencil, at lower left corner, by Cole Weston: "C.W."; in pencil, at lower right: "L"; in pencil, at lower right corner: "61"

Department:

Photographs

Classification:

Photographs

Object Type:

Print

Object Number:

86.XM.722.3

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The worker's worn, dusty hands rest upon the handle of his tool, against a backdrop of his soiled work clothes. Although shown here in repose, the hands are a powerful symbol of a life of hard manual labor. The worker paused here for Tina Modotti's camera, not letting go of the tool and thus suggesting an imminent resumption of work. Modotti, a devoted Communist, was sympathetic to the plight of the laborer in her adopted Mexico, and her photograph serves as an anonymous but respectful depiction of all those in the peasant class for whom survival is a daily struggle.

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